NCAPA Outlines Policy Platform
By Alex Isao Herbach
Rafu Staff Writer
Friday, April 11, 2008

JACCC News Conference introduces problems, solutions for API communities.

Photo by AlexIsaoHerbach/Rafu Shimpo
Lisa Fu speaking at the NCAPA news conference at the JACCC Thursday. Behind her, from left, speakers EunSook Lee, Craig Ishii and Kerry Doi.

As the upcoming presidential elections open up political dialogue across the coun­try, Asian American and Pacific Islander activist groups say there is no better time than the present to alert policy makers to their needs.

The non-partisan National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) announced the launch of their 2008 Platform, a compilation of studies and solutions to specific problems within the API community, at a Thursday morning news conference at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.

“[The Platform] encapsulates our perspective on the problems and also solutions that we will state today,” said EunSook Lee, executive director of the National Korean Service and Education Consortium. “The platform itself is an ability for us to come together to leverage our voices to convey a strong, clear politi­cal agenda and message.”

“It is so important for us to have and collect accurate data in order to recognize that we exist and that our communities have very specific needs,” said Lisa Fu, organizing director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. “Including the needs of Asian Pacific Islanders will not only broaden the policy makers’ and community understanding of the status of our community, but it will also help to develop culturally appropriate programs, reduce disparities, and create better outcomes for all of us.”

Outlined within the Platform are specific civil arenas that the NCAPA feels that the API community are either underrepresented by or are somehow held back from participating in, including civil rights, the economy, education, healthcare and immigration reform.

Central to the NCAPA’s claims is a dissemination of applicable data specific to API’s. A wider understanding of de­mographic information they say can help create more informed and more effective public policy concerning minority com­munities.

“When data is provided only for the overarching groups, important differ­ences between the ethnic groups become visible,” said Craig Ishii, regional direc­tor of the Japanese American Citizen’s League. “Accurate and readily available data focused on specific Asian American and Pacific Islander communities are the foundations upon which effective public policy is built.”

Ishii went on to quote some statistics that elaborated his point. He used data from the 2004 census to describe how language barriers (34 percent of Asian Americans live in households where English is not the primary language) can ostracize this community publicly funded programs like healthcare.

Housing and overall financial literacy is another area where non-English speak­ers can be left behind. The language bar­rier force many immigrant API’s into low paying, unskilled labor, which compounds the financial problems by forcing them into over-crowded or inadequate hous­ing, according to another speaker at the conference.

“Contrary to the model minority myth, many Asian Pacific Islanders still lag behind the rest of the country in terms of wealth, economic justice, job stability, home ownership, and retirement readiness,” said Kerry Doi, president and CEO of the Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment.

“We need to support a national housing trust fund and affordable housing funds that will generate resources for the produc­tion and rehabilitation and the preservation of housing that will be affordable to low income API’s.”

Approximately $6.5 billion in loans are at risk of foreclosure in API communities, according to Doi.

Besides better data and access to publicly funded programs, the Platform emphasized comprehensive immigration reform—a hot-button issue during this election cycle.

Thursday’s speakers stressed that the timeliness of the issues the proposals out­lined in the Platform will not only affect the API community, but possibly policy reform in Washington, D.C. as well.

The NCAPA plans to send copies of their recommendations to all the major presidential candidates, as well as to members of Congress and the Democratic and Republican National Committees, in hopes that the information will inspire their own platforms.

“It’s really important for us to get our Platform out to the candidates early,” said “We have to be heard; it’s critical for us, and it’s critical to them as well.”

Enthusiasm, which has been indica­tive of most of the presidential campaign, was also evident at the JACCC Thursday. Similar conferences will be held across the country; New York City held one today with Chicago and Sacramento to join later in the month.

All in all, the descriptor most manifest in Little Tokyo—as it has been throughout the nation—was hope.

“I think there’s an energy in this elec­tion that hasn’t been seen in a long time,” said Fu. “Our ears are perked up.”

To read the NCAPA 2008 Platform in its entirety, visit www.NCAPAonline.org